


Kai in the Mirror

by blue_deer (Killerguppy)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Angst, Dark, Gen, Horror, Mental Breakdown, Mental Illness, Other, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 21:01:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20570813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Killerguppy/pseuds/blue_deer
Summary: But one day, Jongin made a miraculous discovery: In the old wardrobe of his mother lived a boy.A boy with wild black hair, wide brown eyes and pale skin, the same milky colour as his own.He decided to call him Kai.





	Kai in the Mirror

**Hello.**

* * *

Jongin was born a murderer.

One part of two in his mother's womb, he floated, blissfully unaware, while draining the life of his other half.

The parents' bright eyes dimmed; the warm glow of happiness - brought by having a healthy son - was soon extinguished by finding the second baby barely breathing and weak. He died not long after, crushing the hopes of his parents who had tried so hard to save him, turning their love into something dark and dreary.

Jongin's mother worked hard to make up for her lacking heart. She read him stories, praised his drawings and even tousled his dark locks sometimes in an almost loving manner. However, her eyes never caught his gaze, seemingly looking at something far away, and her mouth never once curved upwards. Still, Jongin loved her more than anything else in this world.

His mother gave up after he had just turned six, allowing the darkness to finally consume her. One day, she simply vanished, just to be found in the attic a few days later, a slight smile on her cold lips.

_Broken heart_, the doctor said, _nothing that could have been mended_.

Following her death, Jongin's rarely present father buried himself even further in his work, leaving Jongin with nothing but his lifeless toys and the silence of the cold rooms. He had cried at first but he soon learned that nobody heard him and nobody cared.

But one day, Jongin made a miraculous discovery: In the old wardrobe of his mother lived a boy.

A boy with wild black hair, wide brown eyes and pale skin, the same milky colour as his own. At first, he looked just as scared as Jongin felt but when Jongin moved a little closer, the boy also took a tentative step in his direction. Locking eyes, a beautiful smile began to brighten his face - the first one Jongin had ever seen in his short life.

**My name is Kai.**

* * *

Jongin decided to call his new friend Kai.

Kai wasn't by far the only friend Jongin had, mind you. There was the little green plush pony Lay, the yellow stuffed bird Yeol and even a blue-striped fluffy cat named Chen with which Jongin liked to have tea parties. But Kai was different from his other friends. He was a little bit better; he was alive.

While the others stared straight ahead without showing emotions, Kai looked at him and smiled. And while the others had to be moved by his small hands, Kai moved on his own. Only in his frame, of course; sadly he couldn't leave the wardrobe - Jongin had tried multiple times to pull him out, only to be met with cold glass - but at least he was free inside. The only similarity between Kai and his friends was that he was lacking a voice. But that was okay. Jongin could speak for two; he did it for his friends all the time.

Kai was a master at cheering him up. He knew how to pull the funniest faces and he did weird little dances, that, without fail, brought a wide grin to Jongin's face and made him dance along.

Therefore, whenever he felt lonely, he would visit Kai to talk and play with him. Sometimes, he even brought his other friends and they would eat small pastries and cookies together in front of the wardrobe.

On days when Jongin felt particularly bad, he crawled into the wardrobe itself, pulled the door shut until there was only a sliver of light left and snuggled into the familiar smell of his mother, still lingering on her clothes. Kai was with him, of course, looking at him with sad eyes, and since they were together, the darkness was not as scary any more.

**Please help me.**

* * *

The house got more sombre during winter, the lamps barely able to keep the darkness at bay, casting shadows in the corners of the rooms.

  
Jongin felt uneasy. The shadows seemed to follow him. He could see them moving out of the corner of his eyes but whenever he turned around, everything appeared to be normal.

He started hearing sounds, quiet scratching and tapping. Sometimes he was sure that he had heard a whisper but whenever he tried to listen more closely, the whispering stopped.

Jongin started spending even more time in his late mother's room, trying to find comfort in Kai's presence.

But while Kai had been content and happy during the past seasons, lately his mood seemed to have dropped. He frowned more often than he smiled and his eyes were sad, holding a nervous look. Seeing him this way made Jongin feel bad and he was sure that it was connected to Kai being stuck in the wardrobe. He probably wanted to see the house Jongin had talked so much about and give Jongin a hug whenever the boy felt scared.

Jongin raked his brain for a solution but he came up with nothing. The little boy was too weak to move the wardrobe around and the frame Kai lived in was fused with the door.

The revelation of his own incompetence disturbed him. Would Kai leave if he was unable to help him? His mother had been sad before she left, why would Kai stay if he was unhappy? Was Jongin himself the reason that the people he held dear abandoned him? Was he _bad_?

His young mind continued to conjure up questions no child should ever ask themself.

The voices grew louder. Sometimes Jongin felt as if he was on the brink of understanding them, the words turning clearer, but then they slipped away like water through his fingers. The shadows also grew darker and it did not matter how many lights he turned on, the darkness seemed to multiply; creeping, swaying and waiting.

For what, Jongin didn't know.

Kai looked more gaunt than he ever had before, sickly white skin pulled taut over high cheekbones, dark purple shadows below tired, dull eyes. The softness of childhood had left him, leaving behind a body that was too thin to be considered normal.

Jongin felt an overwhelming sense of sorrow at that sight.

**Let me leave.**

* * *

Jongin's other friends had proven to be useless. They couldn't help him in the way Kai could, unable to fight off the shadows that surrounded him day after day. He began to keep them under his bed and after a while, he forgot about them completely.

He had moved his blanket and pillows in front of the wardrobe, deciding that this room provided the most comfort and only venturing out to get small snacks from the kitchen and to use the toilet.

Kai also didn't move much anymore, hiding in his own set of bedding and watching with half-lidded eyes until the boy fell asleep.

Jongin's body stopped feeling like it belonged to him, limbs weirdly heavy and slightly numb. He could still hear his lungs working but the air seemed too thick to breathe, syrupy and dark, just like the lurking shadows. From time to time a violent cough shook him. It made his chest burn and complicated breathing even further.

He felt so incredibly hot.

The scratching at the door to his mother's room grew louder with every passing hour. He could hear them whisper his name, shadows seeping through the keyhole and the crack beneath the door.

Someone was screaming, a hoarse voice filled with panic. Looking for Kai, he found him, mouth agape, eyes wide and hands covering his ears. The whispers continued mercilessly and his throat and lungs felt as if they were getting burned by acid. Kai reached out to him, his hand meeting Jongin's halfway, connecting with the cold, flat surface that separated them. They started hitting it, Jongin screaming Kai's name, sobbing and begging him to get out, to finally leave his frame and hold him through this time of terror. He needed his friend. He knew the shadows would take him if there was no one to protect him, to drive them away.

And finally, the surface started breaking. Slightly at first, just a small fracture, but spreading rapidly with each strike of his small fists. A resounding _crack_ filled the room as it shattered into countless glittering fragments, raining down on the boy, cutting him and embedding themselves into his deathly-pale skin, painting it red.

His mind didn't register the pain. Too big was the shock of seeing his only friend burst into pieces instead of walking out of his frame like the boy had imagined he would. It now hung empty and dark in front of him, no trace left of Kai's familiar face.

Jongin felt weak; so weak and small and alone. With trembling fingers, he tried to grab the shards, cutting himself further on the ragged edges, to push them back into the frame. But with him feeling so overwhelmed and his hands being slick, gathering them was incredibly hard. Breathing became even more difficult, tears were streaming down his bloodied cheeks.

If he held the shards at the right angle, he could still see flashes of Kai. The dark hair, the full lips, crying, panicked eyes. He seemed to be just as devastated as Jongin was; he had always been the one who understood him best.

The drops of blood around Jongin's huddled figure had begun to form a puddle, the colour so dark that it reminded him of the looming shadows. The whispers had turned into screeches, the scratching got even more frantic.

He could see Kai now, looking at him calmly from the wet surface of the wooden floor. Meeting Jongin's gaze, he smiled his brilliant smile one last time as the boy fell face-first in his cooling blood, the lurking darkness finally consuming him.


End file.
